About the Staff Advisors

Initially introduced in January 2005 under a Presidential pilot program, the positions of Staff Advisor were made permanent by the Board of Regents on January 18, 2007. The Staff Advisors are selected from all staff and non-Senate academic employees, and are appointed by the President in consultation with the Chairman of the Board. Serving as non-voting advisors to designated Regents' committees, the Staff Advisors have direct input into the Board's deliberations and decisions.

Each year's newly appointed Staff Advisor is called the Staff Advisor Designate. The Staff Advisor and Staff Advisor Designate participate on assigned Regents Standing Committees to allow cross-coverage and mentorship by the more experienced Staff Advisor. The Staff Advisors will participate in all meetings of the Regental committees (with the exception of Closed or Regents Only sessions) and will be invited to stay and observe all open sessions of The Regents' meetings and certain other Regents' events.

Applications for the Staff Advisor Designate position will be available on this web site beginning in January of each year. The application period will then run for at least 30 days.

Questions about the program should be directed to the Staff Advisor or Staff Advisor Designate. The key contact for the Staff Advisors at the Office of the President is Marie-Ann Hairston, Director of Systemwide Employee Relations, Human Resources.

What are the essential skill sets the Staff Advisor should possess?
George Blumenthal, Chancellor at UC Santa Cruz
I think a staff advisor has to be personable and able to interact with a broad range of people. A staff advisor also has to be a little bit of a policy wonk because there's a lot of policy that the staff advisor has to analyze. The staff advisor has to feel an obligation to represent the staff perspective to a group that may be, in some cases, unaware of, or not as sensitive as they might be, to the staff perspective.

And the staff advisor also has to be able to deal with staff over a broad range. We have staff that the staff advisor represents, ranging from lecturers, to directors, to secretaries, to workers in the kitchen. It's a very, very broad range of staff. And the staff advisor has to be able to adequately represent all of them, and be persuasive, and be able to present the case from the staff perspective.

What roles do the Staff Advisors serve?
Harry Powell, Faculty Representative to the Regents (2009-10)
The best way to answer is to describe the roles that the faculty representatives, the staff representatives, and the student representatives play on the Board of Regents. Our most important role is to bring information to the board and to be able to discuss ongoing situations and also help them to understand context. The ability to do that is, of course, the result of the many deliberations that we participate in and the many meetings we go to as we fulfill our roles. In working together - faculty, staff, and students - we get an appreciation of the issues that are rising to the top that are particularly significant for discussion with the Regents at any time.